The decision to pursue a law degree is not one that should not be taken lightly. Analyzing your hopes and needs prior to applying will help you decide whether it’s worth your time, effort and money. It’s also crucial to examine the possible downsides: crippling student debt, high unemployment rates and declining starting salaries. At this point, if you’re still interested in studying law, you might want to consider a law school that’s offering the country’s first “risk-free” juris doctor program.

Following a recent trend among law schools to attract prospective students, the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University announced that beginning this spring, a student who decides to not continue law school after successfully completing their first year of studies can graduate with a Master of Legal Studies (M.L.S.) degree without taking any additional courses. And although students with this degree will not be permitted to sit for the bar exam, this approach will provide students with a foundation in law without preparing them to practice. “The new opportunity removes at least some of the financial and personal risk inherent in a large educational undertaking and comes at a time when people appreciate more guarantees,” said Craig M. Boise, Cleveland-Marshall’s dean. He added, “For these students, the first year of law school might have seemed like a waste and a hard-to-explain item on their resumes. Now they can leave with a master’s degree that we believe will be attractive to employers.” (For more on this story, click here.)

Law school hopefuls, does the “risk-free” J.D. program at CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law help quell your anxieties given the weak legal job market? Do you think this program (which is essentially one-third the cost and time of a traditional law program) would be viable or not? Let us know in the comments section.

You read correctly, a Wharton graduate nabbed the highest annual base salary last year with a private equity firm in New York. The staggering $350,000 starting salary was more than three times the median base salary – $110,000 – of the MBA’s classmates. Yet, these high paying salaries are anything but unique: MBAs from some of the top business schools in the U.S. – Wharton, Stanford, U. Chicago, Columbia and Northwestern – reported that the highest base salary received by a 2010 graduate was $300,000 or more. These figures come from annual summaries of employment of the most recent graduating class. The Wharton MBA career report, which gets its data from student surveys, includes information on compensation, location of employment and the industries in which the graduates now work.

According to management professor Mathew Bidwell, it is both the characteristics of the individual and of the job itself that lead to large starting salaries. “These [private equity] firms tend to have reasonably few people managing very large sums of money,” said Bidwell, whose research focuses on employment. “As you get more senior, each person potentially has quite a substantial impact on the success or the failure of the fund.”

At Wharton, the $350,000 salary earned last year isn’t even a record. In 2009, the top-earning graduate landed a $420,000 base salary…wow. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking where do I sign up, but how important is a high paying salary to you? Are you thinking about changing career paths in order to rake in the dough?

Man’s best friend today isn’t much different from its ancestors. A bone fragment suggests that almost 10,000 years ago dogs likely provided their owners with companionship, protection and oh, at times, dinner. According to researchers, University of Mainegraduate student Samuel Belknap III found a bone fragment from what they are calling the earliest confirmed domesticated dog in North America. Belknap came across the fragment while analyzing a dried-out sample of human excrement unearthed in southwest Texas in the 1970s.

The discovery was made as Belknap was conducting research on the dietary habits of ancient humans who lived in the Lower Pecos region of Texas between 1,000 and 10,000 years ago. “I didn’t start out looking for the oldest dog in the New World,” he said. “I started out trying to understand human diet in southwest Texas. It so happens that this person who lived 9,400 years ago was eating dog.”

DNA analysis by Belknap and a fellow researcher confirmed that the fragment came from a dog – not a wolf, coyote or fox and a carbon-dating test put the age of the bone at 9,400 years.

In high school, students were limited to more or less five core subjects. Yes, additional extras were offered, but the list wasn’t very extensive. Once students enter college, it becomes obvious that there is much more to choose from. And additional career options translate into additional entrance tests. Don’t be stumped when your friends rattle off their stressful exam plans. Below are top testing acronyms—no need to be confused.

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ACT- The American College Test (ACT), like the SAT, is a college entrance test. It is usually taken during a student’s junior or early senior year of high school. Most colleges take ACT or SAT scores into consideration when making admissions’ decisions.

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AP- The Advanced Placement (AP) test is taken by high school students who wish to receive college credit for their high school work. Test takers have usually taken advanced placement classes in high school. Students who score sufficiently well in one or more of the subject options (there are over thirty), may be able to bypass certain college class requirements.

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DAT- The Dental Admission Test (DAT) is for students who wish to enter the field of dentistry. In addition to general academic skill, the test measures knowledge of scientific information and perceptual ability. Because it is more than four hours long (not counting breaks), you can say that it measures stamina as well.

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GMAT- The Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) is used to assess a student’s readiness for business school. Plenty of students attempt the test during their senior year of college, but there are many others who wait a few years. Many business schools look for applicants with sufficient work experience, and that may require a few years of full-time work.

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GRE- The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is less major specific. Students with a wide range of interests and plans take the GRE before entering graduate school. The test is composed of three sections, the Quantitative Reasoning, the Verbal Reasoning, and the Analytical Writing.

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LSAT- The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a test taken by students who wish to attend law school. It may be retaken, but unlike the GRE, it is only offered a few times per year. The test measures a taker’s reasoning skills more than it does their acquired knowledge.

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MCAT- The Medical College Admissions Tests (MCAT) tests a student’s preparation for medical school. It tests both thought process and acquired scientific knowledge. Like the DAT, the MCAT is very time consuming.

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NCLEX-RN- The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) is taken by students pursing a career in nursing. It is used to determine if students are ready to become registered nurses (RN) and composed of four major categories and eight subcategories.

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PSAT- The Preliminary SAT (PSAT) is a preparatory version of the SAT. Students who take the test, in addition to working out their brain, may get the chance to compete for national merit scholarships based on scores.

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SAT- The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is a college entrance exam for high school students. Most students choose to take this test during their junior or senior year. The majority of colleges require that students submit either an SAT or an ACT score as a part of their application package. Depending on the college, one, the other, or neither may be required.

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If you think that $140 is too much to pay for a GRE exam, wait until you see the extra fees. In addition to this year’s $25 increase (up from last year’s $115), there are charges for just about everything one can be charged for.

Before I rant, I must admit that financial assistance for low-income students is available. Those who applied for financial aid and were determined to have an expected family contribution (EFC) lower than $1,400 or $1,800—based on dependency status—can pay $70. But, like I said, the EFC must be below $1,400 or $1,800.

For everyone else, especially for the numerous students who repeat the test, the cost can be a bit much. As if the graduate school application costs weren’t already bad enough. Here is what you may be dealing with:

1. Are you applying to more than four schools? Pay up. For every school above that number, students must pay an extra $15 shipping fee. I thought stamps were $.41?

2. Did your car break down? You better find a new ride to the test--unless you want to pay a $50 test center change fee.

3. Did something unexpected come up? Let’s hope it happened ten days before the test. Students who need to reschedule their testing date will have to announce their decision at least ten days prior to the exam—and they’ll be charged $50. And the rescheduled date must occur before a new testing year begins.

4. Do you need to cancel the test? You must do so ten days in advance, and only 50% of your money will be returned. Even retail return policies are more lenient.

5. In a hurry to send out applications? You will know your verbal and quantitative scores immediately after the test, but early writing scores will cost you $12.

6. Are you uncertain about the validity of your score? You can pay to have the test checked for someone else’s errors, for only $30. That’s just for the quantitative and verbal scores. Writing section scoring will cost you $50. The lengthy writing pieces are little over three pages—that’s about $150 per hour. All right, it’s only $75 per hour; two people are checking.

7. Need to pinpoint your weak areas? A $50 service can help. For $50, you can find out which questions were answered incorrectly and what the correct answers were.

Of course, all fees are subject to change without notice, probably not for the better.

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Students making a difference in their community will get the chance to receive something in return. By submitting information about their community contributions, applicants will have the chance to win financial aid for college. Br!ck Scholarship winners (yes, the “!” is supposed to be there.) may receive scholarship money, community grant money and a spot on a TV award ceremony. Past ceremony guests have included Mandy Moore, Wyclef and the Dashboard Confessionals—get to work, you could rub elbows with celebrities!

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It seems Sallie Mae wants nothing to do with PLUS Loans and it's possible many other lenders will be reticent to bid on the graduate student and parent targeted loans at the upcoming "auction". Supposedly, the government is not allowing lenders to make enough money on these loans for it to be sufficiently profitable so they are opting to invest their capital elsewhere.

Some are claiming this is a ploy to get a larger cut than what the government currently allows. This certainly isn't out of the question, and it seems likely that Sallie Mae would participate if the "price were right", but this is likely beside the point to those seeking financial aid for college. They just want to know how they are going to pay for school if nobody wants to underwrite their PLUS Loan.

There is no question it's difficult to get a loan for education these days and getting more so by the day. Naturally, it would be ideal if every student attending college next year could find sufficient scholarships, grants and other "free" money to pay for their entire education but we are all well aware that is fairly unlikely for most. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. It is rare that those who do, somehow, find a way to get through college without taking out loans are not quite surprised themselves. The key is to search for scholarships and to do so with the belief you can win. Because you can. You probably won't win them all, but you might win some of them, right? Improve your odds by applying to as many as you can from now until every deadline has passed! You may not get all of your tuition paid for (some of you will, though!) but that's no reason not to try, right? Some of you will be able to pay about half, or even more than half and that's huge. Even if you were able to get $3,000 a year? Or even $2,000? Maybe go to state school instead of that pricey private college you were going to attend. Now that $3,000 is much more substantial, isn't it? Consider all of these things and conduct a free scholarship search today and see what's available out there before you start looking at loans.

Back to PLUS Loans and Sallie Mae's absence from the upcoming auction. The idea is that lenders actually have to "bid" on the loans by stating their lowest acceptable federal subsidy rate they are willing to accept to make the loan. They have to give their absolute best offer in competition with other lenders, which should, in theory, benefit those taking out the loans. This "auction" format began just a couple of years ago and may already be on its way out, as President Obama has called for the elimination of the entire guaranteed-loan program. Naturally, this puts further strain on those still trying to move forward with the auction, which will now be without Sallie Mae, who makes 40% of PLUS Loans in the guaranteed-loan program. It is difficult to know how big an impact this will have on the event, but you can rest assured it does not bode well for students counting on PLUS Loans to fund their education.

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Hello! My name is Aaron and I’m going to be writing as a virtual intern here on Scholarship.com’s blog. I’m originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana and though it’s technically the fifth largest city in the state, I still consider myself as coming from a small town. Living in Louisiana and being Taiwanese has made me gain a great appreciation of other cultures and ideas. The most important thing to me though is the food: If you’ve never had home-style Cajun cooking, get down here and try some ASAP.

In my spare time, I enjoy reading blogs, news and various online comics such as Lifehacker.com, bbc.co.uk, and xkcd.com. I’m also recently got into footbiking and consequently I’ve become interested in minimalist running, health and minimalist food, and body weight exercise. While I’m not an expert in any of these things, learning and experimenting is something that I’m living for. We can always better ourselves in one way or another and I’ll be trying to figure that out for as long as I can.

Are you positive you want to pursue a graduate degree? If so, then these programs can be great for you! You can finish both degrees in less time than it would take to pursue them separately. Financially speaking, this is also a good move because you'll be spending less money on school.

Are you looking for a challenge? By senior year of college, some students start to question how much they’ve learned and how challenging their course loads are. If you feel like you need more of a challenge, beginning graduate classes as a senior could provide you with just that. You’ll also have the opportunity to warm up to a graduate course load.

I hope these tips help you out but the truth is no one can decide for you whether or not a five-year combined undergrad and grad program is the right fit – it takes your willingness to research, consult with people in the right departments and get all the facts straight before making your final decision.

Angela Andaloro is a junior at Pace University’s New York City campus, where she is double majoring in communication studies and English. Like most things in New York City, her life and college experience is far from typical – she commutes to school from her home in Flushing and took nearly a semester’s worth of classes online – but she still likes to hang out with friends, go to parties and feed her social networking addiction like your “average” college student.

As 21st century college students, we understand the importance of social media. How else can we get up-to-the-minute updates on what’s going on in our friends’ and family’s lives? Social media has gone far beyond individuals, however, and these days, there’s a Facebook page for almost everything. Colleges are getting in on the action, too, because they’ve realized the importance of connecting with their students through social media. Here are three schools that are doing particularly awesome jobs.

Boston College: The #1 college in social media according to Klout, Boston College has 35,000+ fans on Facebook. BC employs social media to announce events, timely reminders, information on important alumni and more. Twitter is its real strength, though, with more than 15,000 followers and separate accounts for pretty much everything you can think of! An impressive fact: BC’s average tweet has a reach of 6,000 people (40% of their followers) at any given time!

Angela Andaloro is a junior at Pace University’s New York City campus, where she is double majoring in communication studies and English. Like most things in New York City, her life and college experience is far from typical – she commutes to school from her home in Flushing and took nearly a semester’s worth of classes online – but she still likes to hang out with friends, go to parties and feed her social networking addiction like your “average” college student.